A String Of Days

Everyone,

It must be me because I've been having a string of hard days lately.  Today started out nice with Juice home and entertaining Butterfly instead of her jumping all over me.  So I got to lie in bed for just a moment longer.  That moment didn't last as I remembered that we had a birthday party to go to this morning and I had to make sure that the boys napped on time.  (Juice was going to help someone move so he couldn't watch the boys.)

Of course, the boys did not nap on time.  Oh I tried.  They talked and babbled and shuffled in bed while I ran around the house getting everything ready.  Butterfly was a gem and very helpful.  I didn't hear the boys about 10 minutes before we had to go and sure enough, they had just fallen asleep.  They were side by side in the crib with their arms linked facing each other.  For how dissimilar they are, they sure do love to be next to each other and doing whatever the other one is doing.

So now I'm headed out the door with two tired and whiny boys and Butterfly to the party.  It started out great.  And then I noticed where Butterfly was sitting there was a puddle.  Uh oh.  When I went over to see what happened, she simply said, "I peed."  She went back to decorating a bag.  Boy she got in trouble.  Everyone was great about it at the party but we left.  I can't have her not caring that she peed somewhere.  Arg!  I was mad. 

On the way home I did see a bald eagle over my house!  (Totally unrelated I know.)

After we got Butterfly cleaned up and I went for a walk looking for that bald eagle to take a picture of, she asked to go back to the party.  I figured she had been punished enough so we called to make sure it was still going on.  We went back (without the boys, they napped for Juice for about 3 hours) and had a nice time.

Home, naps all around and dinner.  I just got back from grocery shopping by myself.  So although this day had it's low and high points, it ended fine.

Maybe this is why I shouldn't write every day in December.  I do remember my last December being much the same.  But no one else has to remember it if I don't post it.  Sigh...

Safire 

Babysitting Wildlife

Everyone,

With the start up of Jeff back in school, I have started babysitting 2 days a week at a friend's house while she goes back to school. Honestly, it's not my favorite thing to do. But Butterfly loves these girls and it's fun for her to get out of the house. One nice thing about it is they live out in the country and have a huge yard (plus I believe 100 acres...they rent the old farm house) so Butterfly gets a taste of country life.

They have huge windows all over the house with no blinds (no need, their closest neighbor is across the street about a block away) and I love to watch the wildlife. There are deer galore, geese, crows, birds, raccoons, foxes, ladybugs, and hawks. This morning, I saw one of these:


It was so beautiful and so big. I never imagined that woodpeckers could get this big. Apparently, this is a Pileated Woodpecker. The Pileated Woodpecker is the second largest woodpecker in the United States. They normally live in mature coniferous and deciduous forests, valley woodlots and remote mountain territory. My friends have a wood lot behind their house (which the girls call the Hundred Acre Woods...cute!) so I imagine the woodpecker lives there.

One day, Miss Long Hair started yelling about an animal in their backyard. Now I know they have a ground hog that lives out there (much to the parents' dismay) so I thought that's what she was yelling about. Nope, turned out to be two of these:



They were so beautiful, and got close enough to the house that I could make out their whiskers. Sadly, I saw one of them on the road the next morning. But I have never seen a wild one and it was stunning.

I need to start bringing my camera.

I have thought about getting a book on birding at the library so when the kids are sleeping, I can sit at their window and make note of the kinds of birds I see. So far I know I've seen crows (there are murders of them...love that phrase...murders), geese, the woodpecker, cardinals (my favorite bird), and orioles (pretty little yellow things).

One bad thing about living in the country: the amount of ladybugs they get in the house. I have never seen so many inside, let alone outside.

Safire